36 Krypton learned that Ammet Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Amet”) announced the completion of the Pre-A round of financing of tens of millions of yuan. This round of financing was funded by Dongfang Fuhai, Zibo Jingneng, and Capital Technology Development Group invest. This round of financing will be mainly used for product research and development, production line construction and business expansion.
Founded in 2021, Ammett is a technological innovation enterprise focusing on new energy, new material product research and development and large-scale manufacturing. At present, Ammett’s main product is a new type of high-safety composite current collector for lithium-ion batteries, including composite copper foil current collectors and composite aluminum foil current collectors. Related products have entered the stage of pilot test and small-scale mass production, and have begun to supply downstream customers.
Composite copper foil and composite aluminum foil are good alternative materials for traditional current collectors, which are of great significance to the improvement of lithium battery safety, energy density and cost reduction, and have broad market prospects. Referring to the research data of Wood Mackenzie, the installed capacity of lithium batteries is expected to reach 1.5TWh in 2025, and the penetration rate of the composite current collector market is expected to reach 20%, and with the development of the industry, it will break through the 100 billion market in 2030.
The current collector of the power battery is usually designed with aluminum foil for the positive electrode and copper foil for the negative electrode. In lithium-ion batteries, the current collector mass accounts for about 15%, and the cost accounts for about 10%, which has a great impact on battery cost and energy density. Therefore, a major development trend of power battery collectors over the years is to make as much Thin, in order to achieve the purpose of reducing costs and increasing efficiency.
Although the traditional metal current collector can be made very thin, due to the limitations of technology and materials, the metal current collector cannot be infinitely thinned. At the same time, the current collector also needs to have a certain mechanical strength to meet the requirements of the battery processing technology and the structural safety requirements of the battery, so it must also reach a certain thickness.
Compared with the traditional metal current collector, the middle layer of the composite current collector is usually a polymer substrate, and the metal layer is deposited on the substrate to form a composite current collector with a “sandwich” structure, which can minimize the metal layer in the current collector. Thickness, in order to save cost and improve energy density. Taking composite copper foil as an example, the composite current collector is coated with about 1 micron of metal material on the surface of the 4-6 micron base film, which can save 2/3 of the copper compared with the traditional current collector, and has a strong space for cost reduction; in addition , The unique structure of the composite current collector also enables the battery to cut off the internal short-circuit current within milliseconds when the battery is damaged, thereby blocking the internal heat generation of the battery and having good safety performance.
Amet has developed composite aluminum foil and composite copper foil current collectors. The pilot line of composite aluminum foil current collectors has achieved stable production and shipped to many customers, with an annual production capacity of millions of square meters. To a certain extent, composite copper foil products follow the process basis and production experience of composite aluminum foil, and have entered the stage of product verification.
At present, the industry has not yet established a complete product technical standard for composite current collectors, but some key performance indicators are highly valued by customers, such as square resistance, bonding force between the metal layer and the substrate, tensile strength and elongation of the current collector, etc. These performance indicators need to rely on the manufacturing process to achieve. In the production process of composite aluminum foil, Ammett uses the world’s leading PVD vacuum deposition technology, and through some core equipment and technology developed by the company’s R&D team, it realizes the unique “one-time vacuum coating 1000 nanometer metal layer” The technical process can complete the production of composite current collectors with a metal layer with a thickness of 1000 nanometers at one time, which greatly improves the pass rate of film formation and lays a solid foundation for future mass production.
Regarding the production process of composite copper foil, Ammett adopts the method of magnetron sputtering and vacuum evaporation to form metal coating, the process link is shorter, and the indicators such as the tensile strength and pass rate of the current collector have also reached a very high level. . It is understood that Ammett has carried out extensive patent layout on related process technologies, which has laid a good foundation for the continuous iterative upgrading and mass production of subsequent products.
From the perspective of the entire industry, the composite current collector industry is still in a relatively early stage, which involves technological innovation in the field of materials, with high technological content and high industry thresholds. Therefore, there is no phenomenon that industry giants can monopolize the market at this stage; at the same time, Composite current collectors need to cooperate with the update and iteration of the power battery and new energy vehicle industries to complete the product landing. Li Yongwei, chairman of Ammett, believes that the current composite current collector market still needs time to develop, which provides opportunities for start-ups with technical strength.
In the industry competition, the R&D team of Ammett has been deeply involved in the field of material research and development for many years. It has gathered rich industry experience in the manufacturing process of new materials, equipment transformation, performance control, etc., and has mastered the core know-how. This is Ammett core competitiveness.
At present, Ammett has made strategic layout in the fields of power battery, energy storage and 3C, and has reached cooperation intentions with many domestic battery companies, and has also formed a deep bond with upstream suppliers, and the product promotion speed is relatively fast. The company said that in the future, it will continue to expand its personnel scale, increase investment in research and development, accelerate the layout of industrialization, and actively expand downstream customers, striving to become a leader in the composite current collector industry.
As an investor in this round, Dongfang Fuhai said: “Under the general trend of the evolution of lithium batteries with high safety, high performance and low cost, the technical innovation of composite current collectors is about to usher in industrialization promotion. An The Maite innovation team has a deep understanding of lithium battery materials, independent design and integration capabilities of core equipment, and process realization and verification capabilities; with years of experience in the industrialization of battery technology, it is expected to lead Ammet to break through in the field of composite current collectors The Dongfang Fuhai investment team is deeply involved in the new energy track, and will accompany Ammett to gradually grow bigger and stronger.”
Zhu Xiaoyu, executive director of Capital Science and Technology Development Group, said: “Composite current collectors are the next generation of current collector materials, and we are firmly optimistic about its development space. The Ammett team is well equipped, and the founding team is good at technology. The core members are continuous successful entrepreneurs in the lithium battery field. He has been immersed in the industry for many years and has rich management experience. In terms of technology, Ammet Technology adopts the technical route of “one-time film formation”, which greatly improves the product yield and realizes cost reduction and efficiency increase. We believe that Ammet is not only a composite set The promoter of the continuous development of fluid technology has more potential to become the leader of the industry. As a patient capital focused on technology investment, Shoufa hopes to coordinate resources from all parties to help Ammett achieve better development from the perspective of technology services and further Accelerate the progress of new energy technologies and industries, and contribute to promoting a safer and greener energy industry.”
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